Young Hunters of the Lake eBook

He was soon ready for the plunge, and noting the direction
in which the object had last been seen, he waded into
the water. The first touch felt icy, but after
he had ducked down and taken a few strokes it did
not seem so bad. He struck out lustily, and
Shep held up both torches, that he might have some
light by which to guide himself.

Snap was a good swimmer, but the object out on the
lake was further away than he had calculated, and
it took him fully five minutes to get in the vicinity
of it. The sky had clouded over a bit, hiding
the stars, so he could see little or nothing on the
water. On the shore he could see the two torches
that the doctor’s son was waving and that was
all.

At last Snap saw the dark object directly ahead of
him. By this time he was somewhat exhausted
by his swim and he was glad to think that he would
soon be able to rest. Then he made a discovery
which did not please him at all.

The object was nothing more than a part of a fallen
tree, the trunk resting half in and half out of the
water and several branches sticking out in as many
directions. At a distance it looked a little
like the rowboat but the resemblance faded completely
as he got closer.

“Too bad! I thought it was the boat sure!”
he murmured. “Well, I’ll have to
rest on the log a bit, before I strike out for shore.”

He swam up to one of the branches and caught hold
of it. He was on the point of reaching for the
tree trunk when an unusual sound came to his ears.

Then Snap made a discovery that almost took his breath
from him. On the tree trunk rested a big wildcat,
it’s eyes gleaming fiercely at the youth in
the water!

CHAPTER XII

THE CAMP ON LAKE CAMERON

Snap did not stand upon the order of his going, but
went at once. Without a thing with which to defend
himself, he had no desire to come into contact with
such a savage creature as a wildcat, and, consequently,
he dropped back into the water in a hurry and started
back for the shore. He almost fancied he heard
the wildcat splash in after him, and a chill crept
down his backbone which was not caused by the night
air.

“Hello! hello!” he yelled to Shep.

“Got the boat?” came back the cry.

“Not much! Get your shotgun ready and
fire a shot into the air.”

“What’s the matter?”

“A wildcat is out here—–­on
a floating log. I’m afraid he’s after
me.”

“A wildcat! Want me to scare him away?”

“Yes.”

The doctor’s son now understood, and raising
his shotgun with one arm he pulled the trigger.

The report sounded out loudly in the night air and
the echoes went ringing over the surrounding hills.

In the meantime Snap continued to swim for the shore
with all possible speed. Fortunately he came
in where there was a sandbar, so that he could wade
to solid ground. When Shep reached him he was
panting for breath.